


the girl behind his door

by maswoon



Category: Persona 4
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 16:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20509847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maswoon/pseuds/maswoon
Summary: The growth of Rise and Yosuke's relationship through the course of the year of the murders.





	the girl behind his door

### i.

Yosuke was returning from classes in Tokyo when he first saw her. It didn’t flip his world upside down in one fell swoop, but he did feel his throat catch a little at the agency’s newest talent. Risette. She’d appeared on one of the major screens in the Scramble Crossing, advertising some brand of iced coffee that Yosuke had no taste for. He doesn’t even remember what the ad looked like now, just her and how overwhelming she was. It was a full on train crash of Risette, every bit of her part of a grand sensory overload. He admired her, the way her hair danced in the breeze, the practiced melody of her voice, the way her one piece swimsuit clung to her just so. He was a teenager, and as far as he was concerned, totally blameless in his fixation. She couldn’t have been all too old, either, no doubt a teenager too, and fresh to the scene. Couldn’t have been older than him. If anything, that made him among the less creepy people of her no-doubt growing fanbase. A part of him wondered about whether or not that was wrong, but it didn’t stop him from going to Akiba the next day to buy a pinup book with her on the cover.

### ii.

‘How do you keep yourself from losing your mind when you’re looking at the girl on the posters you used to masturbate to?’ Yosuke wondered. It was a crass thought, but it was the one thrumming at the forefront of his mind. It also wasn’t a question he could answer now. He certainly didn’t have the answer, hell, right now, he was paralyzed. His throat felt dry for some reason, and he just couldn’t figure out where his hands were supposed to go. Should he fold his arms? Shove his hands in his pockets? Dammit, why was he so nervous over something that was his idea? He was the one that thought it would be cool to come see Risette, he just wanted to bask in the glow without having to think about any of this!

Yu didn’t seem to have an answer for the unspoken, illicit inquiries, any of them, his demeanor all business and common sense. It was good that one of them had managed to keep their head screwed on tight enough for the two of them. 

Yosuke smirked inwardly. Narukami probably didn’t even have those urges, as calm and seemingly superhuman as he was. But Yosuke did, and the girl in front of him looked the same as the girl whose raciest poster was up on the back of his door. 

Their expressions couldn’t have been more different. That was Risette. She had a come-hither look, had thrust her slight chest out, had waves lapping around her perfect legs so that she sparkled like so many rays of summer sunshine and was just, undoubtedly, unabashedly the most gorgeous thing Yosuke had ever seen. 

But this girl was overcast, she was dark, and she was tired. 

She was in Inaba, and she was selling him tofu. 

Wild. 

### iii.

Yosuke didn’t really know what dungeon would form from Rise’s inner conflict. He had assumed it would be a zoo or something, cause the way idols were treated was sort of like animals, if you thought about it.

In retrospect, a strip club made sense for about the same reason, but even seeing the poles near Risette just felt wrong. 

“Today, you’re going to see every last inch of me!” Rise’s shadow squealed.

Yosuke wasn’t sure how to deal with that. For whatever reason, it made him sad. The stormy, brooding girl from the tofu shop was holding this part of herself in. Maybe a year ago, he’d have been cheering like an idiot, but this… was this Risette? Or Rise? What did he even think of this girl any more?

All the way! Live! Hot! Risette exposed! The sign above the stripper that wore Rise’s face proclaimed. 

This was more uncomfortable than arousing. In a way, this was just a long twisted joke of never meet your heroes. Or your idols, in this case. The group’s conversation drifted around him, bits and pieces coming in with the waves.

“What we just saw is what the Rise girl is suppressing!” Teddie had said, and Yosuke didn’t know what the hell to make of that, either. 

Did Rise want to be a gravure idol? But she was like, too young, right? No, that was a really fucking dumb thought. That was so very lizard brain of him. None of this made any fucking sense. He wished he was a little less dense about this kind of stuff. 

It didn’t matter. He was one of the very few people who could do something about it, so when the group is done mulling over where to go next, he’s first to follow Yu.

### iv.

This dungeon was starting to piss Yosuke off. Everything smelled overwhelmingly sweet, the lights were continually strobing in and out of vision, and he could barely hear his own music over the thumping drone of the loudspeakers. Things blended together in a non-stop assault of pink, purple, and velvet plush, and every corner he turned, he swore he’d find a new stripper pole. 

Thank God this last stripper pole at the bottom had both Rise and her shadow. 

“Aw, what’s the matter? You wanna show your stuff, don’tcha? How’s this?” The shadow squealed. 

Rise needed to get this out. He knew that. It had helped him, it had helped Chie, Yukiko and Kanji. Yosuke didn’t say anything, even as the shadow began a dance around the pole that made Yosuke feel more sick than aroused, even as Rise had objected, tears in her eyes brought forwards from the accusations leveled by her inner demon.

The shadow giggled. “Oh, she wants me to stop? That’s so funny! As if that’s even close to what you’re thinking, you little skank.”

Yosuke’s knuckles burned white against his knives, more and more accusations flying out and over the prone, scared girl. She didn’t look like some country-conquering idol now. She looked like he’d felt when he first moved to Inaba. Lost. Alone. Confused.

“Risette? Who the hell is she!? There’s no such person in this world!”

A lump was forming in Yosuke’s throat as he confronted his own views on the matter. No Risette. Only Rise. He hadn’t really managed to think much about it before this place other than “girl hot.” But the people he put on pedestals were still just that— people. Risette was Rise, first and foremost. She was a girl, with her own human experience, and Yosuke was so disturbingly complicit in perpetuating the view that she could never be anything aside from Risette. He could do better going forward. She deserved better from people than to simply see her as a piece of meat. 

With a pang of guilt, Yosuke realized that she’d deserved better from him. 

“That’s not… I-“ Rise began, but the shadow cut her off again. 

“Well then, I guess it’s time to prove it! I’m gonna show it all off! Let my naked truth be burned into your brains!” she squealed, a hand flitting to her back as she continued another slow descent down the pole. Yosuke couldn’t help but stare in rapt attention, face flushed with blood. Fuck. Girl hot. 

This was making introspection hard. 

“Stop! Stop it! You’re… you’re not me!” Rise finally denied, the phrase a jolt back to reality. Yosuke could feel the adrenaline surging in his veins with the inevitability of the situation. Yu bolted into action too, drawing his longblade with one hand and pushing up his glasses with the other. A grin sparked on his face. Was he waiting for this?

Their assault had at first been working, but after some time, it became obvious that the shadow could anticipate their attacks like no other. Even if it was within inches of defeat, that didn’t matter when none of their attacks were hitting. And as it had analyzed their offense, it was preparing a counterattack. Yosuke jolted with pain as a neon leg collided with his stomach, pushing the wind out of him.

Then there was suddenly a series of explosions, and he couldn’t really remember what had happened after that in perfect clarity, but he did remember Teddie’s last stand, his subsequent not-death, and rushing over to a prone Rise on the ground, accompanied by her shadow self. It was another scenario, he mused, that would have made him even a week ago unintelligible with a fanboy’s glee.

In the end, the conclusion that had given Rise peace of mind was an acceptance that there was no “real” her. The shadow, herself, Risette, all of them were facets that she couldn’t deny. “You’re me,” she said, with a gentle hug for her shadow self. The shadow had simply nodded, as all of them had before, and soaked itself into Rise with a flash of light.

Shortly after the acceptance of her Shadow turned it into a Persona, she had collapsed, and Yosuke was first to her side. “Rise-chan! Careful!”

“I’m alright… hey, you’re the one who came by the store, right?”

“Yeah. And these guys came with me,” Yosuke said, eager to divert attention from the fact that in his haste, he was touching Rise. He withdrew his hand the moment he was sure she could support her own weight.

“Thanks,” she said, with a new smile, one Yosuke hadn’t seen before on any of the posters or pinup books. His heart rattled inside him like it had been tossed about a hurricane. 

Teddie’s shadow had shown up shortly afterwards. Rise’s voice was broadcast directly into his mind during the fight. That was some wild shit. 

That night he hit his futon like a sack of bricks and drifted off with the dopiest smile. 

### v. 

The fog had rolled in, and out, and left a new corpse in its wake. He felt his hands slacken as he looked towards the television that his parents were eating breakfast near, scarcely able to believe through sleep-rattled eyes. “No, no, Rise was safe, no, God…” Yosuke muttered to himself, staring at the contacts on his phone. Dammit, he hadn’t asked for Rise’s number. He sent a quick text to Chie, explaining where he was going, he had to see the body for himself just to make sure. 

Still, he couldn’t help himself but feel relieved when he’d seen the body himself. It wasn’t Rise. Not Rise, but Morooka instead.

If he were a worse person, he might have cracked a smile at the death of the one who’d caused him so much grief, but he couldn’t stop the numbing pit in his stomach that confirmed that they were one step further back from figuring this damn thing out. And besides that, King Moron wasn’t an irredeemable monster, he was just an old man with no sense of reality. Thus, the rock in his stomach. 

It was, however, the day Rise had made good on ingratiating herself with his group of friends, making their strange band even stranger. His heart leapt at the knowledge. 

He had caught up to her later, after the group had chatted and dispersed for the day, and excused himself for his behavior. “Hey, I’m sorry about being weird earlier. We’re cool, right?”

“Duh. Of course, senpai,” Rise said with a confused smile. She was cheerier that day. Maybe it was thanks to the shadow, or maybe it was just gratitude at the team for saving her. Ha. Who knew all it took to ingratiate yourself with girls was to help save them from a creepy TV world where they would have died? Shoulda tried that one sooner, honestly. 

Still, as she skipped off to rejoin Narukami, he couldn’t help but feel a little envious. Of course she was into him. Cool, unflappable, suave, the understanding of a saint. But in spite of the full array of Rise’s feminine charm being pointed directly at Yu, he barely seemed to bat an eye. Instead he intently looked towards her eyes, his expression passive and bemused. Even when Rise had moved beside him and latched onto his arm, absolutely nothing. Yosuke wasn’t sure if it was confident swagger or just plain lack of caring. 

So, yeah, Yosuke got it. Yu was the leader of the group, and he had the biggest hand in saving Rise— no wonder she’d fall for him.

At the end of the day, Yosuke was Yosuke and Yu was Yu. Any girl would make Rise’s choice. 

But he really wished she didn’t.

### vi.

Though they chatted as a group many times after that, Yosuke struggled with finding a valid excuse to invite her anywhere alone. When the chance reared its head, Yosuke was quick to strike.

**RISE:** heyy, is anyone cool to hang after classes today? i wanna go to okina city and do some shopping!  
**YUKIKO:** Sorry, Chie and I have plans!  
**KANJI:** gram has me working today sry  
**YU:** Not today. The fox needs my help. 

Yosuke leaned back in his chair and shot a confused look at Yu for that one, but that reply was the only answer that seemed to be forthcoming from the teen. 

**YOSUKE:** i’m free. meet up at the gates?  
**RISE:** sounds good! thx senpai!!

Totally worth it, even if it meant being her sherpa while she meandered about Okina City. It’d still be just the two of them. Rise wasn’t the heaviest shopper, and it meant he was audience of one to a private fashion show put on by Rise herself. 

Plus, like, she was shopping for a one-piece, so that was pretty distracting in and of itself. He could ignore the fact that it was probably a surprise to catch Yu off guard. If it even did. 

“Ooh, there’s a new summer collection at Croco Fur!?” she enthused, making her way over to the storefront and placing her fingertips on the glass as she checked out some of the new pieces. Yosuke slung one of the bags over his shoulder, closing pace to observe her find: a two-piece swimsuit with lacy accentuation around the bust in a cool, water blue color and a matching transparent sarong tied around the waist, trailing over one leg.

“That’s really good,” Yosuke offered. “It’d probably look pretty cute on you too. It’s a nice blue.”

“Oh yeah?” Rise replied, ushering him into the shopfront. “You’ve had a pretty good grip on what’s looked good on me so far, huh?” An accusation phrased as a question.

“Hah, uh,” Yosuke sputtered, trying to figure out the best way to phrase that he was familiar with her body, as it was plastered on the back of his door. He really had to get that down. The first time Teddie busted into his room, it was hidden between the open door and the wall. Still, it was only a matter of time before that bear got slightly smarter. “Got an eye for color, I guess?” he lamely offered. A twinkle in Rise’s eyes taunted him. 

“Uh-huh,” a thoroughly unconvinced Rise responded. Fuck, she had to know at this point. 

On the train ride home, when the carriage was empty except for the two of them and their baggage, Rise posed a question. “Hey, Yosuke-senpai. Who was it you wanted to hang out with today? Me or Risette?”

“Huh?” It took him off-guard. “I don’t get it. You’re the same person as Risette, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but also no,” she responds, looking down with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “What I mean is, if you’re hanging out with me and expecting to hang out with the girl you see on TV? You’re not going to see her.”

“Oh,” Yosuke answered. With a wink, he added, “that’s fine by me. Whoever I’m hanging out with is pretty cool. I’d do it again.”

“Smooth, Yosuke-senpai,” she responded with a giggle. 

“You know what’d help me do it again?”

“Hm?”

“Your number,” he asked with a hopeful grin. 

She laughed. “You dork, you could have just gotten it from the group chat. Here, you can have it anyways,” she answered, turning on her phone’s IR port. He tapped his phone to hers, smiling. “Careful, Yosuke-senpai. Keep this up and you might seem like less of a dork than usual,” she warned him, playfully pressing a fist to his shoulder. 

### vii.

Every time he passed the Konishi Liquor Store, he asked himself what could have been. It had been about a half a year since Saki Konishi had wound up dead on that telephone pole, and it was a weight he didn’t ever think would fully go away. He didn’t think he loved her, not any more, but it sucked that he didn’t get the chance to figure it out.

He idly kicked his toes into the ground as he was passing by, smirking. She probably wouldn’t have given him the time of day. Sometimes, Yosuke had doubts about his own friends too, whether or not they’d have looked at him twice if he didn’t have the power of Persona, and he wondered how they would treat him if they had seen his ugliness. He sighed, and stopped suddenly. It wasn’t good to linger on these emotions, he knew that. If Yu thought badly of him, he was confident Yu would have let him know by now, and he was the one who had seen him at his worst.

“You alright, Yosuke-senpai?” he turned towards the voice. Rise. He looked past her, and saw the storefront behind her, empty save for her grandmother, an old woman with a personality like a kotatsu. Rise was wearing her kerchief and apron, so she must have been working. His feet must have kept moving when his mind had stopped.

“Yeah, y’know. Just thinkin’ about things,” he mulled, providing an uneasy smile for her.

She didn’t look like she was the least bit convinced, and nodded slowly. “The case?” she asked in a low voice. 

“Kinda, yeah. I was… close with the second victim,” Yosuke admitted, shoved his hands in his pockets, “and I was just thinking about her.”

“Oh, Yosuke-senpai, I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” she murmured, looking towards the ground with quiet eyes. 

“It’s fine. I’m over it, but… it’s just another reason I care so much about finding the killer. It feels like… like she can’t rest in peace until we do, or something,” Yosuke replied. Then, not meaning his words, he added, “Hah, that’s pretty stupid, huh?”

“No, I get it. I’m really sorry, Yosuke-senpai. She sounds like she was important to you,” Rise answered, quietly frowning. 

Yosuke looked for somewhere to sit down, and settled for the raised concrete of the porch of the store. Rise gathered her dress and sat next to him. The shopping district was empty enough, and he spoke quietly. This was as good a place as any to bare his emotions. “Yeah. She was. You know how I’m the Prince of Junes or whatever, right?”

“Pretty stupid nickname, but yeah, bullies will latch on to anything,” Rise replied with a knowing grimace. 

“People thought Junes was going to kill the shopping district when it came in, and I was part of that problem. So people sort of treated me like an outsider. It was… well, is, sort of hard to make friends with people who don’t know the real me.”

“Mm. I get that,” she agreed, smiling distantly. 

“But Saki-senpai, she wasn’t like that. The first day she met me, we took a photo together at Print Club. And she said, ‘you’re not your dad. You’re you.’ And, well…” Yosuke sighed, blinking back his tears. “It was the first time I thought that maybe I could live here. I thought maybe things would be okay, and… she wound up dead. I miss her. I really miss her.”

He made no objection to the reassuring hand Rise placed on his shoulder. He leaned into her touch, letting himself be still for a moment. 

### viii. 

Yosuke was on his way to Souzai Daigaku but found himself lingering outside of Marukyu Tofu. He wondered if he should invite himself in during one of the days Rise was working when a strange man with an attaché case approached him. He brusquely introduced himself as Rise’s former manager, forced a fan-letter on to Yosuke, and left while stammering apologies. Yosuke flipped the letter in his hands. It was cute writing, and it was as good a reason to chat as any. Marukyu was dead around dinner time anyways. 

He let himself in, and Rise, alone behind the counter, brightened at his presence. “Hey Yosuke-senpai! Ooh, what have you got there? A love letter?”

“Hah, no,” he replied with a grin. He wished he was that brave. “I’ll come clean, that Inoue-san guy gave it to me.”

Her face fell, and Yosuke wondered if he shouldn't have agreed. “Ugh. That’s the second time this month,” she grumbled. 

“It’s a fan-letter,” he said, handing it to Rise.

“Oh, it’s from her.” The conflict was clear on Rise’s face, but curiosity won out and she opened the envelope. “Get well soon...? Right, I cited illness.” Rise’s emotion was clearly written on her face. The letter had made her uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry, I should have told Inoue to scram,” he started, but Rise shook her head. 

“No, I’m happy this got to me. This girl writes to me a lot, to tell me that she’s inspired by me. She makes me feel like what I did-- Risette, I mean-- meant something,” Rise responded, tracing patterns on the paper with her thumb. “Stupid Inoue-san. He didn’t have to make my choice harder,” she muttered, and Yosuke wished there was no counter between the two of them so that he could give her a hug or something. 

“Hey, if you ever want to talk about it or anything, you have my number. I’ll drop anything to help out.”

“You’ll cut work? You’ll skip on finals?” she teased, holding him to his words. 

“I’d tell Narukami to shove off for you,” he joked, and Rise softened. They chatted more after that, Yosuke lingering around the tofu shop when he didn’t work, and Rise finding him during his shifts to pester him. 

### ix. 

Cicadas played an erratic rhythm and the scent of fried food wafted through the air as the dim light of paper lanterns illuminated the traditional festival at Inaba, where Rise and Yosuke had, as planned, ‘bumped into each other’ in an alley made between two tents. 

He wasn’t sure why she insisted on the secrecy, but he was down to meet with Rise under any circumstances. A part of Yosuke was quick to remind him: it’s because she doesn’t want people to think that you’re dating and she’s an idol and any relationship she has pales in comparison to that fact.

Yosuke quickly quieted his brain. Whatever this was, it was good. It was comfortable.

“Come on senpai, let’s see the fireworks.”

Yosuke nodded agreement, and the two found a quiet spot on top of the hills where the fireworks were framed perfectly by the trees. “Wow, can you believe this luck?”

“Pretty incredible, senpai,” she agreed with a giggle. Yosuke spread a flannel blanket on the ground before gesturing for Rise to sit down first. She obliged, and Yosuke settled next to her: close by, but with a respectful amount of distance between the pair. 

“It’s times like this I’m happy I came to Inaba,” he said, lying back and simply letting himself be, amidst the boom of the fireworks and the steady breath from himself and Rise, amidst the warm midsummer evening air, the gentle rustling of the trees and the clear, vibrant pink and yellow of the sky.

“Yeah. Me too.”

Yosuke was content to let this moment last forever, but a question broke the silence. “Hey, senpai. What was your Shadow like?”

“Huh?” Yosuke asked, opening an eye to look at her. She was sitting up and looking down, exasperation tugging at her features. 

“You got to see mine, so it’s only fair, right?”

Yosuke sighed, twiddling with the hem of his shirt. “It’s not a super pretty story. It’s actually really embarrassing.”

“Yeah, I can understand that. But,” she added, brushing her fingertips against his bunched up knuckles, “I don’t think you can get much more embarrassing you did when we met.”

“Ah, dammit. You have me there, huh?” Yosume admitted, cringing into himself. She had a playful smile, one that knew she was right. “Okay, fine. Fine. Okay.” Yosuke collected himself and figured out where to start. “Well, it wasn’t a big complex place like yours or that Kubo bastard’s was, it was just, like, a quiet little liquor store. You know, the Konishi place up the street.”

“Why do you think it was there?”

“I guess I internalized a lot of the guilt that came with being the Prince of Junes. That or I was hung up on Saki-senpai’s passing still. Either way, the… me, that was inside of there, it talked about how much I hated living in the country, and how bored I was with everything.” Yosuke paused to allow himself a withered smile. “How I was chasing the murders because I was just desperate for something to happen. So I could be special.

“Of course I denied it, but Narukami was there to deal with it when the Shadow showed up, and once I got that out, I was ready to admit it. Back then, the countryside seemed like a prison, and yeah, I did want to be the hero. I did want to be special. But… it’s not really like I’m not, right? Narukami and I actually talked this out a while ago, and… just by being there for other people, you become special to them. You know, like you. You’re special to me.” He watched a distant firework burst into orange and copper, only to look at a flushed Rise beside him sporting a playful grin. 

“Senpai, I didn’t know you felt that way!“ she teased. 

“Yeah. Whatever this is, I hope it stays like this,” Yosuke said with a smile. “But… that’s mine. Hope that doesn’t scare you too much.”

She bumped her shoulder into him. “I get it, and I understand where you’re coming from.”

“Thanks,” Yosuke responded with a smile, as the two let the fireworks blossom above them. 

### x.

**RISE:** heyyyy yosuke-senpai  
**RISE:** can u do me a favor?? ☆ ～('▽^人)

His leg vibrated during lunchtime. Yosuke smiled apologetically at the rest of his peers as he checked the message. Chie didn’t seem to notice, only barely pausing her rant about the merits of Raging Fury of the Burning Fist compared to Trial of the Dragon 2, Test of Shinryu. 

Yosuke waited a minute before answering the text. No need to seem too eager. 

**YOSUKE:** sure what do u need?  
**RISE:** meet me on the roof

He tempered himself but only managed to wait about thirty seconds before he excused himself from the chat and blitzed his way to the roof. She was waiting there, sitting on one of the ducts, and greeted him with a perky smile and wave. “Hey, Yosuke-senpai!”

“What’s up?”

“So, this is kind of embarrassing, but… you know that beauty pageant, right?”

“Uh… sure,” he replied, suddenly finding the pageant way more interesting. 

“But I don’t wanna sign up for it, cause then people will be dumb about it.”

“Okay, so you want me to sign you up?”

“But our friends will get confused if it’s just me that’s signed up.”

“Would it really be so unreasonable for a former idol to look for the limelight again?”

“Not when I swore off the business to Yu-senpai,” she responded. He suddenly understood where she was leading him.

Yosuke sighed. “I get it. So I get to be the scapegoat?”

“Please?” she begged, hands clasped together. “You’re the only one I can ask to do this!”

“G-get Kanji to! Or, or— or Yu!”

“Kanji doesn’t have the guts to make it through the door and Yu probably thinks the whole thing is stupid! Please?” she asked again, making a cute pout, her lower lip protruding just so, bending towards him just enough that a bare hint of her uniform was hanging low enough that he could see a little more skin than he should have. That was too hard to resist. Yosuke’s eyes flickered down, and he knew he’d lost the test of wills at that point. 

Dammit. Damn this girl. Damn you, Rise. “Okay, fine! Fine, I’ll do it,” Yosuke finally managed to say, hiding his flush behind his hands. Dammit, he was putty. She knew it. 

“Yay! Thanks Yosuke-senpai!” she squealed, giving him a quick hug and vanishing down the stairs. 

Goddammit. He was so weak.

He’d probably never live down the crossdressing pageant that Chie had signed him up for as a revenge, but he would certainly remember the way Rise’s eyes caught his in the crowd and she’d graced him with a wink that said thank you.

### xi.

Though they had two inn rooms, Yosuke was meandering around while waiting for the others to fall asleep. Teddie was being too weird to be palatable for more than a few minutes, so Yosuke had excused himself from the room and let Kanji and Yu deal with it.

He figured he’d take a soak again. Fresh off the heels of being battered with wash tubs, now was probably a safe time to get in. After double and triple checking the bath schedule, he entered the baths. They were entirely vacant. It was about midnight, and the air nipped at his bare skin as the steam washed over him. He quietly submerged himself in the water and steam. 

Drifting off quietly, he lolled about, feeling sore muscles unwind and long-held tensions deflate, the soothing bath shrouding him in heat. It gave him some time to think. The cultural festival was one of the best times he’d had in Inaba so far, and he had so many great memories to choose from. The beach was beautiful, back when they had gone after catching Kubo. The summer festival, watching the fireworks with Rise. The time that the group had gathered to play one of Rise’s songs at Junes. When he’d moved here from Tokyo, he couldn’t have imagined he’d have preferred the countryside to it. He still couldn’t believe he did, but he figured it was probably thanks to the company that he kept. Thoughts of his friends in stupid, silly scenarios continued to roll in his head. The King’s Game, the concert, the pageants. It sucked that the year was running into its final stretch. He’d miss it. 

Someone was getting in next to him. He looked over to see Rise covered in naught but a towel, and he was all nerves again.

“I think I lost track of the time. Sorry, uh… Should I leave?” Yosuke asked, making sure his presence was even allowed. 

Rise cocked her head. After a pause, “it’s mixed baths. You’re fine,” she replied, tone deflated and defeated. Yosuke felt a pang of concern, and followed up.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” 

“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing, Yosuke-senpai,” she answered too quickly, a lie. The tone of her voice was enough for Yosuke to be certain of that. 

“Well, if there ever is something, I’ll hear you out.”

Rise gave him a tired smile. The quiet lingered for a few more moments, but Rise’s expression was pensive, questioning. She seemed to be playing with a phrase in her head, toiling over it in her mind. After a minute, she finally managed to blurt out some pretty carelessly presented words. “Did you know Senpai is asexual?”

Yosuke choked on the air he was breathing. “I… I had kind of guessed,” he stammered, a sort of strangled sound. Rise sank slightly lower into the water. “He never seemed all that interested in… well, uh, in you. Or, like, girls. Or guys, I guess, the tent and all, with Kanji,” Yosuke babbled incoherently, trying to use any words at all to defuse the situation. They all glanced off of Rise.

“Yeah, he never did, huh?” she muttered into the water, the statement seeming to tie weight to Rise’s legs and drag her further into the springs. She winces at the situation. “Ugh, that was stupid of me to say. It’s not my place to say that. Stupid Kujikawa,” she sighed, pointing her words into the water.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Yosuke answered, flushed from the heat and situation.

“Yeah, it’s probably best that you forget this conversation happened,” Rise glumly responded, wringing her hands together under the water. 

Yosuke lingered for a while, trying to find something to say. He thought one of his better qualities was how quick he was with a joke, or how easily he could defuse tense situations by drowning them in words, but he didn’t know how to comfort Rise, in this moment. The words he normally would have used weren’t enough. In this case, time was all that could mend this wound. Still, he stayed, hoping that he could provide some semblance of comfort even without words. He laid a hand across her back as her heartbreak turned to tears.

### xii.

“So I’m going back into show-biz,” Rise announced one day as the two were sitting on the roof of Junes, enjoying some late autumn ice cream. It was an unusually hot day, the mugginess of the air sticking to skin and soaking through. She set the spoon down on the edge of her paper bowl and looked to Yosuke expectantly.

He pursed his lips. “Is that what you want?”

“It is,” she said, folding her arms and looking out over the countryside. “For the longest time, I think I’ve been running from myself. I thought I could find myself in the countryside when I quit, then I thought I could find myself in Yu-senpai. I think in the end, I was only ignoring the one I’d found along the way.”

Yosuke nodded, setting his frozen treat down as well. He drummed his fingers on the table, not sure of exactly what to say. He snorted inwardly at the irony that both of them probably used Narukami as a basis for the things they should say to comfort their friends. “That’s good that you’re going back then, yeah?”

“Yeah. I’m gonna miss it out here, though,” she sighed, smirking at the irony of it all. “It sucks that I had to come out here and meet some really awesome people only to realize I wanted the stage back.”

Yosuke hummed assent. “Yeah, it can be like that sometimes. I know it’s not really comparable to how many people you’ll be missing, but the town won’t be the same without you next year.”

“Naoto, Senpai and I are all leaving, yeah,” Rise confirmed with a frown.

“Inaba will be a sleepy little place again,” he mused, looking past Rise into space. He was going to have so much free time. But it was the way things were, so there was no point in his stomach lurching and the chill that he felt over his skin in spite of the heat. He slowly imagined a year without them, and it felt cold and distant.

“We’ll visit,” she assured him, and Yosuke nodded.

“Don’t leave us waiting too long, okay?”

### xiii.

Yosuke had gotten better at noticing subtle things about her, the more they talked. Rise was outwardly expressive, but she had moments where what she portrayed and what she felt were at odds. She didn’t like to feel vulnerable, he reasoned, a habit learned from show business. It was probably hard for Risette to seem that way.

“Is it gonna be okay?” she asked, as the two sat in the foggy winter near the hospital, both hearts rent at their second home breaking apart around them. Nanako showed no signs of getting better any time soon. 

“Yeah, it’s gotta be, right? We… we got the bad guy, after all, he’s...”

Rise’s eyes met his, and she was all vulnerabilities. Eyes watery, face flushed red, and lips trembling, she asked, “but what if it isn’t? What if she couldn’t take it? What if that place was too much for her? She’s just a kid, Yosuke-senpai!”

He didn’t have a good answer, but he wanted to try to make it alright. “Nanako-chan’s tough. She’s way tougher than me, she’ll pull through, okay? You gotta believe in her.”

Tears that didn’t belong to him stained his jacket as Rise curled up into his chest, crying. Unsure of what to do again with his hands, he settled one between her shoulder blades and tried his best to seem unflappable. “She’ll pull through. Yu hasn’t been wrong before, okay? We gotta trust him.”

The words were catching his throat as he formed them, and he could hardly believe himself. The words rang hollow, affirmations lacking weight. In a way, Rise had pulled the thoughts right out of his mind and given them voice. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes as he tried to blink them away.

His heart lurched, a hollow pit forming from his own helplessness. It wasn’t only for Nanako, teetering on the precipice to whatever lay beyond, but for the fact that, again, he couldn't make things right for Rise.

### xiv.

Yosuke was, according to himself, pretty shallow earlier that year. He liked to think that he’d changed over the course of it, as battles and pursuing murderers would tend to. Near-death experiences and the like usually caused a few grey hairs, after all. Yu was just ahead of the game on that one.

And they had caught the killer, and that had forced them to confront a Shadow the likes of which they hadn’t seen before: Ameno-Sagiri. It was an unprecedented menace, and together, they had taken it down. For one of the first times in his life, Yosuke was pretty pleased with his life’s trajectory. He was at his physical peak, as his lithe musculature would attest to, and he felt emotionally stable in a way that he hadn’t really managed to before after hashing out some of his frustrations with Yu, a revelation that had awakened a new power in him based on his further commitment to himself. They had caught the killer, the real one this time, and he was going to rot in prison for the rest of his life. Finally, Konishi-senpai could rest in peace. By all accounts, Yosuke was doing pretty well for himself. 

So why were his eyes lingering on Rise so often lately? It felt like a regression, a betrayal of his growth. At first he just chalked it up to his monkey brain again relaying to him that yes, girl hot, and she was undeniably gorgeous. 

There was something more to this, though, because he had gotten disgusted with himself earlier that year and trashed his pinup books and raunchy posters, all of them. He told himself, at the time, that it was because Teddie would be completely intolerable if he got a hold of any of that stuff, but the unwritten reason was that if he ever wanted to have Rise over then it would be an uncomfortable conversation to have, because they had mostly been of Risette. Who was, of course, Rise. 

Who was the object of his confused, lingering stares. The last time he had felt like this was with Konishi-senpai, but he had assumed that to be a simple physical attraction and mistaking any sort of humanity during those first months for romantic affection. He wasn’t about to forget the words he’d heard in the TV world, either. So yeah. That was monkey brain girl hot attraction. There were plenty of hot girls in his life. Chie, Yukiko, Naoto, all of them fulfilled the criteria, they were indeed ‘girl hot’. But while Chie was cute, and Yukiko was beautiful, there was something about Rise that left him speechless. Her smile was like stage lights, completely disarming and forcing light upon everyone in the room. She could command people’s attention almost effortlessly. She had renewed her desire to go back into show business, and it had seemed to change her again. She was radiant, and driven, and absolute. In a way that nobody else had, she trusted him with her secrets. She wanted to be a part of his life; she had proven it by seeking him out at his work and spending time with him, even when the world seemed like it was at its end. She listened to him when he had problems. So it must have been something different, what he felt for Rise. He followed the thread to its end, spooling it out in front of him. 

What did he want for Rise? He wanted her to be safe, comfortable, to attain her dreams. He wanted to watch the fireworks with her, and share Christmas with her, and the summer festivals too. He wanted to be at every single one of her shows, he wanted to learn her favorite songs so he could butcher them at karaoke. He wanted to grow old with her, to be there once she moved past her career, to learn the callouses on her hands. He wanted her to feel loved by her fans, by her family, by herself. By him. 

He loved her, after all.

His heart stuttered; he silenced himself. Picking thoughts from the din, he tried to get over this revelation. Was that even allowed? Should he follow this impulse, or should he just quiet it and stuff it away in some part of his brain that wasn’t ever allowed to see sunlight again? After all, the hero was the one who was supposed to get the girl, and the sidekick was supposed to make jokes and crack wise. As far as Yosuke could tell, the one who never had to deal with his own Shadow, never had to think twice about his actions, instead following his own ideals and always, always thinking through things perfectly: that was the hero. Was a sidekick allowed this kind of happiness? He sure as hell couldn’t think of any instances of people settling in film. 

In what world could a loser like him get with a girl like Rise?

Yosuke rolled the words around like a pit in his stomach, again quieting himself. The parts of him that he disliked were parts of him too, and Rise didn’t seem to mind them. She hadn’t faulted him for his past, and she encouraged his growth.

This world was pretty weird. He thought of Ameno-Sagiri and 8-bit castles, chuckling to himself. If things like that could exist, anything could happen. He could give it a try. 

### xv.

How the hell was he going to get some privacy around Rise? He knew that Rise wouldn’t respond to one more love letter in the kilometer high pile of them that she’d no doubt accrued from every male student in the damn school.

Would a text even work?

**YOSUKE:** Can you meet me near the Samegawa river bank?  
**RISE:** sure!! be there in just a sec!!

He could scarcely believe that he’d managed to press send, but he was glad he did. He immediately began second-guessing himself, questioning whether or not it was supposed to be this simple.

She was Risette, right? He was probably supposed to have some big, blowout confession that would part the skies and be memorable, not a quiet, low stakes mess with the hero’s sidekick.

It had snowed yesterday, and he left a trail of dragging footprints in his wake. Though it was getting later, it was just becoming twilight, and the winter sky was painted a warm orange.

He practiced for a bit, going over ways to say it in his head, but at this point all he could come up with was corny clichés. How do I tell you you’re my world? I’d pull down the stars for you. The moon is beautiful, isn’t it? God, it wasn’t even night time! His nerves were getting the better of him, and she wasn't even here yet.

“Hey, Yosuke-senpai!” Rise chirped from nearby, and the boy froze in his tracks. He had begun pacing without realizing it. So much for her not being here.

“Oh, uh, hey!” Yosuke responded, trying to find something to do with any singular part of his body to affect looking chill. Hands in pockets was clearly no good. Why was he lifting his arms? That was also bad. Folded arms was his eventual decision after three incredibly agonizing seconds. 

Rise watched him with a bemused smile, before asking, “what’s so important we had to meet in person?”

“Uh, y’know, nothing— I was just wondering if you, uh, wanted to go for a walk?”

“Pretty bad weather for a walk,” Rise responded with a giggle. “You’re up to something, aren’t you?” she asked, moving closer to him and drawing a playful finger to his chest. 

His chest felt so warm through the biting cold. He bit his lip, tried to look anywhere aside from her face, but his eyes kept going back to hers, twinkling in the winter twilight. 

“Okay, yeah, I admit it. I need to tell you something, okay? And, please, don’t laugh at me or anything. I don’t think I could take it.” Yosuke swallowed, and closed his eyes so he could be spared whatever derisive look Rise had in store for him. “I love you. I-- I think I’ve loved you for months now, I love— like, all of you, I think you’re perfect. No matter who you are or who you become, I’ll love you, Rise,” Yosuke spewed forth words like a geyser, and he sighed. This was maybe the worst confession in the history of confessions. “Okay, sorry, that wasn’t something I needed to, uh. I’ll leave you alone for—“ she caught his hand as he wheeled around on his feet.

“Hey,” Rise said simply, voice a soft, quiet plea, and tugged at Yosuke’s hand. He surrendered to her lead, and she pulled her arms around his back and held him in a comfortable silence. “Thank you. I do too.”

The wind whistled a cool assent, and Yosuke was suddenly very aware of how warm and soft Rise felt, even underneath her quilted jacket. He blushed a bright crimson.

“Wait, you do?” Yosuke stammered back, unsure if he had misheard. 

“Yeah. I love you too, Yosuke,” she responded, propping herself up on her tip-toes to give Yosuke a simple, chaste first kiss. 

It was, to borrow a cliché, as if she had pulled the stars out of the sky. Yosuke, shocked, simply held on to the moment, slack jawed by his sheer disbelief that he was holding Rise. “Wow. Feels good to have that out in the open,” he finally said, with a self-derisive chuckle. “You’re okay with me?”

“What? Geez, I’m pressed up against you like this and that’s what you’re worried about,” Rise complained, eyes and tone sharp. “Of course I am, Yosuke-senpai.”

“It’s just… I’m not exactly the hero,” Yosuke breathed. 

Rise sighed. “This is about Yu-senpai, right? Yu is Yu. I love him, but he’s like, everyone’s big brother plus therapist. You’re like… well, you’re Yosuke-senpai. And there’s so much to love about you that isn’t at all like what I love about Yu-senpai.”

He allowed himself a brief grin, eager to hear more. “At risk of seeming like I’m fishing for compliments—”

“You’re funny, you’re perceptive, and you’re trying really hard to be a better guy than you were the day before. You’re there for me when I’m sad, and you’re genuine, and sweet sometimes too,” Rise responded easily, but he could see a hint of flush in her cheeks. It matched his own. “So don’t think you aren’t good enough, okay? What we have… I wouldn’t trade it for something else.”

Their footprints huddled close together, a new path forged onward in the nipping snow. His hand found hers, and her fingers laced with his. He couldn’t think of a thing he wanted more in this moment than to just be with her, to simply bask in the glow of this girl he cared for so deeply, the one who, by some miracle, seemed to feel the same. Rise smiled at him. Yosuke nodded back. It wasn’t going to be easy, he knew Rise would be returning to the city for her idol work again. But he was willing to give up whatever it took. Fingers interlaced, they proceeded towards the future.

**Author's Note:**

> me: you should write a fanfic for something that's current and relevant, you like Fire Emblem Three Houses a lot right  
also me: writes like 8k words for a rarepair


End file.
